Sunday, August 30, 2015

Hi! I have a card today that I made for the My Favorite Things Color Challenge. This is my first time playing along with the color challenge because I don't own any MFT card stock, and I only have their black ink pad, but I asked them about it on their FB challenge board and they said as long as you use MFT stamps and dies you're good. I was happy to hear that and decided to make a card for the current challenge :)

These are not go to colors for me, although I do love the combination. I searched through my patterned papers to find shades that were as close as possible.

I used the Blue Skies Ahead stamp set along with MFT's cloud die to create my card. It was very easy to put together and I like how it turned out. This will be another good card to send to my son at college.

Saturday, August 29, 2015

My card uses My Favorite Thing's Penguins in Paradise stamp set. I paper pieced the penguins swim trunks, aren't they adorable? All of the patterned papers are from Basic Grey's Lauderdale 6X6 pad, and the slide die is from PTI. I added some glossy accents to the ice cream bar, and some sequins to finish my card. Of course this is for Connor who's away at college. My plan is to send him a card each week to let him know how much I miss him. We text all the time so I know he knows that already, but I think the cards will be something extra he'll appreciate. So different from the olden days when I was growing up when snail mail was all there was other than a phone call, which was expensive back then! The times they have changed ;)

I made this card with my son Connor in mind so I wanted to use a masculine theme and color scheme. He does make me smile, big time, and I'm missing him so much since he left for college! I used the You Make Me Smile stamp set along with the stars from Winning, and the tag and kraft label are also from RC. The vellum stars and Scribble Circle behind the tag were cut with PTI dies. To make my card I embossed the stars and word SMILE with white embossing powder on watercolor paper. I used distress inks to add my colors, tapping them on my craft mat then spraying with water then rubbing the watercolor paper in the ink. It's such an easy technique and I especially love the way it looks with bold, solid images such as the ones I used here. I finished the card with some sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

I only used one stamp for this card, the word "smile" from Giddy Bugs. I made the background by repeatedly stamping the word smile using Hero Arts Mint Julep ink. I cut the top with the scalloped curve die from Simon Says Stamp, and then added a piece of vellum over top because I wanted to mute the background a bit. All of the patterned papers are from Simon Says Stamps August card kit. I thought the camera paper worked perfectly with the "smile" sentiment. Just a tidbit, this is the third version of this card because I was really having trouble coming up with something I loved. Don't you hate when that happens? I'll admit though I'm probably my own worst critic ;)

To make my card I first used Cracked Pistachio and Squeezed Lemonade and my ink blending tool along with the Classic Diagonal Creative Screening stencil from Winnie & Walter. I cut the top of the card stock with a die from the Wavy Scallop Stitches from Simon Says Stamp and place it on a PTI Soft Stone card stock base. The die cut flowers (which are colored with Picked Raspberry DI) and leaves are from Essentials by Ellen Wild Garden dies and the sentiment is from Mondo Magnolia. I added some sequins and black splatters to finish the card. These flowers rather remind me of poinsettias (not sure if that's what they were intended to be), and I can see these looking beautiful colored in red for Christmas cards!

Friday, August 21, 2015

This was one of "those cards", you know the kind you have a vision for but it just doesn't quite translate to paper. I knew I wanted to make the Distress Stain stripes in the background, and that I wanted to put various images from Polynesian Paradise in the oval. What I had trouble with was the coloring, I used Liquid Platinum embossing powder on my card, and colored the images with my Zig watercolor markers. I actually embossed and colored several times and finally just had to say "it is what it is", and settled on this. Ah, such is the life of a card maker, some days you're in the groove and other days, not so much :) Onto bigger and better things.

Hello! Hope your week is going well! Today I have a card I'm entering in the current CAS(E) this Sketch challenge. I haven't played along with this challenge in forever, but it has always been one of my favorites. The DT members always rock the sketches, and the sketches themselves are really good ones! I'm not sure if this card is CAS enough for the challenge, but since I used their sketch I wanted to give them credit :)

I've been playing with my August Simon Says Stamp card kit and the papers and puffy stickers are from that kit. Really, the sketch and the papers did all the work here, all I did was cut the papers and add the bow, puffy stickers, and sequins.

I'm so far behind in using my SSS kits, I think I have 3 that I haven't even touched. In the past I've enjoyed opening them and using up every last bit, and I hope to start doing that again. I think they're a great value, and I've loved every one I've received!

Monday, August 17, 2015

I was in the mood to use some patterned papers today, something that I really love using on my cards. These papers are from American Crafts Hip Hip Hooray 6x6 paper pad, and they're just perfect for a happy birthday card. The sentiment die is from MFT and I cut it from shiny gold card stock. I splattered on a bit of Heidi Swapp Gold Color Shine to give the card an extra bit of interest. I love circles of all shapes and sizes so this card makes me very happy :)

I was very inspired by the bright colors and fun back to school theme of the Sparkle & Shine graphic and thought that some of my new Paper Smooches stamps and dies would work perfectly with them.

I stamped the smiley face from Spreading Sunshine on white card stock and added pencil lines to the paper. I die cut the easel and added the sentiment on the black card stock using white embossing powder. The check mark is also a Paper Smooches die from the Clipboard die set. The sequins are from Pretty Pink Posh. This school themed card is kind of bittersweet for me, my son is leaving for college on Thursday. He's the first one to leave the nest and it's turning out to be a pretty emotional time for me (and he hasn't even left yet lol!) I miss the days when my kids were young and I made lots of fun, school themed projects. I think I'll send this card to my son after he's been gone for a few weeks to let him know I'm always thinking of him, sniff sniff...

Sunday, August 16, 2015

I squeezed in another card today, this time for the August Mix it Up challenge over at Ellen Hutson. This month we're combining an Essentials by Ellen product with Clearly Besotted. I LOVE Clearly Besotted stamps, particularly their lovely flower stamps. I had actually colored the daffodil image a couple of months ago and had it sitting in my "to be used if possible" box (doesn't everyone have one of those, ha!) so in the interest of saving myself some time I decided now was the perfect time to use it!

I used watercolor for the daffodil (Zig Clean Color Real Brush pens). The daffodil is from the Clearly Besotted stamp set Just Darling. I layered up a few patterned papers and a doily and added the cute little clip from Paper Smooches. The sentiment, which I embossed in gold on vellum, is from Essentials by Ellen Mondo Magnolia. I used my tiny stapler to attach the sentiment to the card.

For our final lesson of MFT Summer School, let’s take a look at the
intentional use of color to create a mood for our designs with various Color Temperatures. The temperature of colors can be seen in the varying color hues used to create a mood.

Ya'll know I'm a color girl, and usually the brighter the better, but I wanted to stretch myself a bit with this last lesson so I chose to work with a neutral color palette, something I rarely use. My color choices came from something I pinned a long time ago, but have never used on a card:

It's kind of funny, if you look at my Pinterest color board it's just loaded with bright, vivid colors; this pin is definitely out of the ordinary for me, but for some reason I was really drawn to these colors.

I pulled my colors from the graphic, black, dark grey, brown, the plum color although I don't have a dark plum, mine is more of a dark burgundy, and cream. I used MFT's chevron die, and the sentiment is from Brushstroke Birthday. I embossed it on a piece of polka dot velum. I wanted to add some circular elements to my card (remember lesson #13, hard vs soft, yes I was paying attention lol!) so the dots in the vellum, the circular sequins, and the loops of twine behind the sentiment help to soften the hard edges of the chevron. I figure this will be a perfect card for one of the men in my life, don't you think?

I'm really sad to see this series end, I've enjoyed playing along and LEARNING! I'm very curious to see what MFT has in store for September though, Susan says it will be something of a "final exam". Ahhh, something to look forward to!

Our lesson today centers on understanding Color Saturation. Color Saturation refers
to the intensity of color. The more white or gray that is added, the
less saturated the color becomes. You can add black to deepen the
saturation. Cards tend to work best when the saturation of the colors
are on a similar scale.

It's no secret that I adore bright, saturated colors, and that's what I used on my card today.

To make my card I used the sun stencil from MFT to add some PTI Harvest Gold ink to my card base. I stamped the birds on some watercolor paper and used my Zig Clean Color watercolor markers to color them, then I fussy cut them. I took my bird colors from the patterned paper, which I cut using a die from Blueprints 23. I popped up the paper and birds on foam tape. The birds and sentiment are from Polynesian Paradise. I'm SO loving using this stamp set, there are just so many adorable images and sentiments in it!

One more lesson to go for summer school, I'll be back with that, hopefully tomorrow :)

Friday, August 14, 2015

When it comes to the concept of Hard vs. Soft we can
define it like this: For every hard line or edge you place on a card,
the design is balanced by some softness, whether it be from a texture
(like a ribbon) or a shape (like a circle); too much hard or soft might
not work.

I tend not to use many soft textural items such as ribbon or felt on my cards, but I do like mixing hard edges and soft edges, as in straight lines or angles vs. circular elements. You can see an example of that in my card today.

The fishtail banners, the wonky chevron pattern, and of course the rectangular shape of the card, these are all hard elements. The circles from the Jumbo Dot Cover Up, the circle of twine, the curves of the flowers, would be considered soft elements. Using these elements together on a card creates balance.

To make this card I used the Wonky Chevron stencil and Cracked Pistachio distress ink with my blending tool on white card stock, then I cut that piece with the Jumbo Dot Cover Up die and mounted it on black card stock. The flowers and leaves are from Polynesian Paradise, I stamped them on watercolor paper and used my Zig Clean Color watercolor pens to color them. I wanted the hibiscus to really POP and stand out on this card, so I used neutral colors to surround them. I love how this turned out!

I'll be back tomorrow with another card for the 4th lesson in this series, it's a cute one :)

Thursday, August 13, 2015

I love using leftover pieces from my cards to create new cards. Too often I end up tossing things so I'm always very happy when I can incorporate them into another card. The stamped floral circle from yesterday's card ended up being the inspiration piece for today's card. I used the same color Distress Inks (Worn Lipstick, Wild Honey, Cracked Pistachio and Tumbled Glass) to do the watercolor. All of the stamps are from Polynesian Paradise. After I'd assembled the elements on the right side of my asymmetrical card, it looked off balance to me so I incorporated Yoonsun's tip of adding a strip on the left side. That did the trick, the card felt perfectly balanced with the addition of the black and white patterned paper strip. I love the things I'm learning in MFT Summer School!

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Session three has started in the My Favorite Things Summer School! I was excited today to get started with the next lesson which is about repetition in design. From the MFT blog:

The first lesson this week centers around the concept of usingRepetition. Repetition is
the repeating of visual elements such as line, color, shape, texture,
value, or image. Using repetition tends to unify the total effect of a
card’s design as well as create rhythm.

I started my card with a white card base. I used MFT's Jumbo Polka Dot stencil, distress inks (Worn Lipstick, Wild Honey, Cracked Pistachio and Tumbled Glass), and my ink blending tool to apply color onto the front of my card. Then I stamped one of the small flowers from Polynesian Paradise, using black ink, in each of the circles. It was so easy to stamp the flowers using those circles as my guide! Next I used a round die to cut a piece from the front of my card. I also cut a round piece of black card stock, adhered that on the inside of my card, and trimmed the edge.

I stamped the bird and sentiment, also from Polynesian Paradise, with Versamark ink onto the black card stock and embossed with white. I added a few colorful sequins to bring more attention to the bird. This is a great technique for anyone who doesn't love to color in images. I wanted the colorful flowers to have most of the attention because they represent the lesson, repetition.

I'll be back tomorrow with a card for the next lesson that uses the piece that I cut from today's card. See you then :)

Friday, August 7, 2015

I'm back with my 2nd post for today and this time I'm playing along with the My Favorite Things Wednesday Sketch Challenge! I received some MFT goodies in the mail today, and one of the items was the new stamp set Polynesian Paradise, which I couldn't wait to use because it's SO darling!! Here is the sketch I'm using:

I white embossed 4 of the images from the stamp set onto watercolor paper, then I used a splatter stamp from Jumbo Abstract Art and various shades of distress ink to create the watercolor splatters. I added a strip of colorful patterned paper to each side of my card, and the sentiment is from Polynesian Paradise. I chose that particular sentiment because I think the watercolor looks like splashes of water, so it fit the card well :) The card is finished with some colorful sequins from Pretty Pink Posh. I can't wait to play more with Polynesian Paradise, it's such a fabulous stamp set!

Happy Friday, folks! I made a card for the current Sparkle and Shine Challenge, just look at this lovely graphic and you'll see why I HAD to make a card for this!!!

Isn't that picture positively JUICY?! Orange is one of my favorite colors and I wanted to make something that would capture the essence of this glorious orange arrangement.

I knew I wanted to do some watercolor for this card, and I actually used several different kinds of watercolor here, my Zig watercolor pens, some Gansai Tambi Kuretaki watercolors, and DI Orange Marmalade. I am by no means an expert at watercolor, far from it, so I just played around with this piece until I got a look that I liked. The flowers are from MFT, the sentiment from Simon Says Stamp, and the sequins are Pretty Pink Posh. I do love how this one turned out, and it makes me want to play some more with watercolor!

I just received some new Paper Smooches products in the mail, the cute easel die and Spreading Sunshine sentiments which were made to fit in the easel die perfectly! I love the uplifting sentiments in this new set. And for some reason I just couldn't make this card without using a Giddy Bug lol! But seriously, this cute bug with her big old smile works perfectly with the sentiment, don't you think?

I used dies from Winnie & Walter, Memory Box, and Avery Elle in addition to the PS easel. I added some bakers twine to my card as this weeks theme at Simon Says Stamp is "tie it up". Hope my card makes you "smile", thanks for stopping by today :)

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Hello! Today I have a card to share that I made for the current Winnie & Walter Rerun Challenge. The stamp set they're featuring this time around is Bubble Talk, which I don't own, but we're invited to take inspiration from one of the DT cards if we don't own the featured set so that's what I did. I love the beautiful cards the DT made, and I was inspired to CASE Gayatri's creation using the stamp set My Precious.

To create my card I stamped some of the smaller gems randomly over a white card base using Wplus9 Pure Color Bo Peep and Falling Star inks, and Hero Arts Shadow Fresh Peach Ink. I picked 3 of the larger gems to be my focal point. I stamped those with the solid backs of the stamps first and then stamped the outline over them with black ink, then topped them off with glossy accents for some shine. The sentiment is also from My Precious. I finished the card with some black gems. After I was done with this I wished I'd added some messy string behind the large gems but I didn't feel like taking it apart. I do that A LOT, see things that would make a card better after it's finished, sigh... I find it interesting that there's something different between looking at a card through my eyes and looking at it through the camera's eye on a computer screen, anyone else notice that? Anyway, I do love this card, this is my first time using My Precious and I really love this stamp set!

Ok, so on to my card! This was WAY fun to make, and my card was totally inspired by this card, the one with the cute little awning, by Betsy Veldman!

The awning was very easy to make, easier than I though it would be, just punch a scalloped edge and add a couple of score lines and you're good to go. The adorable cupcakes are from MFT's Sweet BD Wishes. I colored them with Copics, and added a bit of paper piecing on the scalloped edge. I also added some glitter to the 2 white frosted cupcakes. The balloon and balloon string are from PTI, and the die cut word "birthday" is from MFT. I added plenty of embellishments to this card so I thought it would be perfect to use in the Virginia's View challenge :) So what do you think? I wanted it to seem like you were looking into a bake shop window, I think Betsy's card does that better than mine, but I do love how this turned out!